NBN towers anger residents and Andrew Wilkie

The wireless component of the NBN is stirring up old mobile tower concerns.

By Brendan Gullifer

UpdatedJanuary 13, 2012 — 10.30amfirst published at 9.51am

A farming family who rejected an NBN tower on their property due to an alleged “unacceptable” community health risk is now fighting a planning application to erect one on a neighbouring farm.

Bernard and Carmel Righettim of Smeaton in Victoria said they were offered $8000 a year to host an NBN wireless communication tower.

Regretful ... Andrew Wilkie.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Towers are designed to deliver the wireless component of the new national broadband network. But a strong sense of social responsibility to the local community would not allow them to accept the offer, the couple said.

The Smeaton family is the latest in a number of rural residents to object to planned NBN towers. In another Victorian town, Buninyong, residents have vowed to fight a planning permit application for a 40-metre communications tower beside Macs Road “as long and as hard as necessary”.

Advertisement

Smeaton residents Carmel and Bernard Righetti.

The small towns' battle with towers has now seen high profile political independent Andrew Wilkie weigh in, saying he would not live next to a communications tower. The MP is now considering introducing new laws which could affect the way the wireless component of the NBN is rolled out.

A spokesperson from NBN said their wireless towers would emit radiation that was within a “small fraction of acceptable safety limits” for electromagnetic energy, much less than television and radio broadcasts.

“The safety standard in Australia is based on the international safety standard recommended by the World Health Organisation,” the spokesperson said.

Commenting on Buninyong's battle with the NBN, MP Andrew Wilkie said that communication towers were “unsightly scars" on sensitive or historic landscapes.

Smeaton residents Carmel and Bernard Righetti are opposing the installation of an NBN tower in the town on health grounds.

“I have two young children...while I'm unsure what the health impact would be I would default to a precautionary principle,” Mr Wilkie said.

“It has become clear at any one time there are dozens of communities around Australia fighting this battle and [telecommunication companies] are picking them off one by one,” he said.

“Most of us want wireless but not at any cost.”

Mr and Mrs Righetti said a tower on land they owned in Alice Street, Smeaton, would have been too close to other homes. But a new application on land owned by another Smeaton farmer would put a tower adjacent to land on which two of the Righetti's nine children plan to build houses.

A planning permit for a tower at 37 White Hills Road, Smeaton, was lodged with council in November.

Mrs Righetti questioned the timing of the application, making it difficult for people to object over the Christmas holiday period.

“The proposed wireless tower renders our [home] sites completely unsuitable to live on because of its proximity,” she said.

The site is also approximately 500 metres from Smeaton Primary School. The school's principal, Liz Carmody, could not be contacted for comment.

“We are most upset that the application is riding roughshod over our family's potentiality,” the couple said in a letter to Victoria's Hepburn Shire Council.

Mrs Righetti said Australian safety standards for wireless towers were much less stringent than those imposed overseas.

She likened the issue to early safety concerns about tobacco and asbestos, adding a family member was already fighting a battle against cancer.

MP Andrew Wilkie said he maintained his support for the NBN but big communications companies were “riding roughshod” over local communities.

“It shouldn't take public rallies and mobilising politicians to stick up for a fundamental community right,” he said.

“I don't care if they are NBN towers or not, this thing needs to be sorted.”

Mr Wilkie said he had concerns about public health but deliberately excluded it from a private member's bill to give it a better chance of success.

He said the bill would give greater community say over the placement of communications towers.

It includes stronger avenues for appeal, 500 metre setbacks and more time for communities to have an input to local government on tower applications.

Mr Wilkie admitted the bill would have a direct impact on the NBN roll-out if passed.

Victoria's Hepburn Shire Council confirmed at least two applications for NBN tower planning permits - at Smeaton and Newlyn.

Victoria's Moorabool Council has three applications – at Gordon, Clarendon and Yendon.

Gordon resident said Ann Henke said community opposition to the proposed tower in Nightingale St was strong.

“I can't believe how big the tower would be,” Ms Nightingale said. “I'm opposing it from a health point of view and it will desperately interfere with the lovely view.

“My big objection is weren't we promised underground cable – why are we being short changed?”

Ballarat-based Senator John Madigan said he had yet to see Mr Wilkie's bill but called for telecommunications companies to be put under more scrutiny.

“I believe these people should be held to account,” he said.

“There should be proper independent Australian medical research by eminent independent people into the dangers of living close to communications towers.”

The New South Wales Department of Education does not endorse telecommunication facilities within 500 metres of a school fence. A spokesman for the Victorian Department of Education could not confirm a similar policy.

According to the Smeaton permit application, the landholder is Mr Ian Miller.

Loading

Mr Miller did not respond to calls from Fairfax, publisher of this website.